JERUSALEM — The eight-day conflict in the Gaza Strip appeared to have spilled onto the streets of Tel Aviv on Wednesday with reports of a bomb blast aboard a civilian bus.
The explosion came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pursued diplomatic efforts to end the fighting. She planned to fly to Cairo Wednesday after talks with Israeli leaders in Jersualem and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.
If confirmed, the bombing would mark the first time in the current fighting that violence had spread onto the streets of Tel Aviv.
On several occasions since the latest conflagration seized Gaza last week, militants have aimed rockets at the city but they have either fallen short, landed in the sea or been intercepted.Hundreds of rockets fired by militants in Gaza have struck other targets.
On Wednesday, the Israeli ambulance service said there were at least 10 casualties after the explosion, according to news reports, and a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the blast a “terrorist act.”
The spokesman was quoted as saying the injuries were minor. “A bomb exploded on a bus in central Tel Aviv. This was a terrorist attack. Most of the injured suffered only mild injuries,” Reuters quoted Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, as saying.
According to The Associated Press, the bus exploded on one of Tel Aviv’s busiest arteries, near the city’s museum and close to Israel’s national defense headquarters.
Television footage showed a bus with shattered windows, filled with smoke.
In a Twitter message, the Israeli military said: “A bus has exploded in Tel Aviv. Possibly due to a bomb or suicide bomber. Many ambulance sirens. Stay tuned for updates.”
Bus bombs and urban violence were relatively common a decade ago during the second Palestinian uprising, but have been rare in recent years.
Israeli news reports said police were investigating accounts by witnesses that a person jumped on and off the bus shortly before the blast.
Explosion Reported on Tel Aviv Bus
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق